ALBANY — As part of the state’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic, the state Department of Health is trying to encourage more hospitals to offer detoxification services.

In a letter sent Friday to all hospitals in the state by the department’s general counsel Robert Kent and Deputy Commissioner Daniel Sheppard, the department announced it would waive the need for hospitals to receive state certification to run a detox unit. The waiver would expire at the end of the year — at which point the state will re-evaluate the need for the waiver.

The state has been pushing to increase levels of treatment for opioid addicts, according to the letter.

However, hospitals have been reluctant to admit addicts who come to emergency rooms after overdosing because state law requires hospitals to be certified by the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to run a detoxification unit with more than five beds.

“This is a missed opportunity that could have potentially fatal consequences,” the letter says.

The number of people needing treatment for opioid addiction in the state has skyrocketed in the past decade.

In January, the state Department of Health released a quarterly report that examined the number of overdoses, deaths and hospitalizations in each county. In 2016, more than 2,000 people in New York, excluding New York City, died from heroin overdoses. Thousands more were saved by Narcan.

That same report documented the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to opioid overdoses. In 2016, 1,895 people in the state, outside of New York City, were hospitalized for overdoses. Another 6,675 people were treated in emergency rooms and discharged.

In 2016, the state passed a package of legislation to address opioid and heroin addiction issues that included increasing the length of time that family members can request hospitals keep addicts for evaluation.

But emergency rooms don’t always connect addicts with treatment programs, putting them back on the street where many immediately go look to get high again to erase the symptoms of overdose or withdrawal, said John Coppola, executive director of the New York Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers.

The letter signifies an important step toward connecting addicts with treatment after an overdose but it isn’t the final step, Coppola said.

“Hospitals have to make a commitment that this is a population they want to serve,” he said.